ICS Nav 6 Pro - Long Post

[martinwoolwich]

A catalogue of problems - but still trying to find an answer.

I have an ICS Nav6 Pro that doesn't work! It only worked once, when first fitted - after 3 attempts - when the boat was based on the River Thames.

On that install the company (who shall remain nameless but were completely useless and charged me £800!!!!), fitted it as a stand alone device. I was so frustrated with the first company that I got another one to connect all the NMEA stuff together with my onboard SIMRAD CP42

Since then it's not worked. At first I thought it was 'cause I was on the Thames - even though it had worked the first time - and wasn't a pressing problem anyway because of the boats location. I have now moved it down to the Solent and still no Navtex information - All the NMEA stuff seemed fine and the screen showed both frequency icons and no errors anywhere.

Once in the Solent (this was April) I rang ICS who took me through various checks whilst I was sitting on the boat in front of the thing. Their only suggestion was that the Simrad was sending out too much data and was conflicting with the working of the NAV 6, but they weren't sure this was the problem as they had not heard of this problem before. So I turned the Simrad stuff off, waited 4 hours and still didn't make any difference. Two days later the screen failed anyway!!

Someone told me this was a common fault on early production runs of the NAV6. So got in touch with my second company to remove said device and return to ICS.

Call after call and some four months later, they still hadn't done it. Eventually, I got yet another company involved who disconnected the whole thing and sent it off to ICS for repair.

ICS replaced the screen and also did a firmware upgrade (and I assume fully tested the unit as working)

NAVTEX was re-installed last week. Went on boat this weekend and same problem. All NMEA stuff working so as a repeater screen it's great. As a NAVTEX device it's non existent - but everything on the screen looks like it should be working.

I even did a factory re-set again to check that the installers hadn't done anything funny.

On the basis that it's already been back to the manufacturers for a repair and firmware upgrade it would seem reasonable to assume that they tested everything and the main unit is working OK. On the basis that I have both frequency icons at the top of the screen it implies the aerial is OK. On the basis that I have the same fault whether my Simrad kit is on or off that doen't seem to be the problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions what to look at next?

I know the correct thing is just throw the bloody thing away, but it's now cost so much money and time - I'd really really like to see it working.

Serious suggestions gratefully received.

 

[HaraldS]

Have you tried to take the NMEA cable completely off the ICS unit? From what I've heard the unit is very sensitive to interference and it could catch some noise via the cable, even with the Simrad powered off as you did. There are a couple of possible problems if this cures it. Best is to try disconnecting the cabe (both wires) and see if it makes ant difference. If it does, we can go on.

 

[davidwf]

I have to say that I'd be tempted to look at the antenna, not sure exactly what the frequency symobols mean but check theres no joints in the antenna cable and if there are, they are made with Coax connectors.

Believe me the standard of some so called experst is low, I had a VHF antenna cable twist jointed by one bunch.

Also check the antenna is earthed properly.

David

 

[MartinGPerry]

The Navtex receiver unit is actually situated completely within the aerial assembly - the display is just that. As you only have reception problems it sounds like the problem may be with your aerial

I have a Nav6 Pro, this has been back to ICS twice for repair - first because the wiring loom was a completely different colour set to that given in the manual, the second time there was a display problem, both times the repair took 3 weeks. I think they send them on somewhere else to be fixed.

Later models have dispensed with the whip aerial - it made little difference to reception. Here in the Solent many yachties including myself are mounting the aerial on the lower horizontal rail on the pushpit, the performance seems not to suffer and the aerial is much less vunerable there

Martin
Blue Chip

 

[yachtbits]

800 quid?

I assume that included the nav 6, lunch and a hull scrub!

explains why I haven't retired yet! I wouldn't have the balls to even suggest a figure like that for fitting a Nav 6

Next time, sail up to lowestoft, you'll get the lunch and a smaller bill!

happy sailing

kev

www.yachtbits.co.uk
sales@yachtbits.co.uk
marine electrical/electronics specialists

 

[halcyon]

Re: 800 quid?

Tell me about it.


Brian

 

[Guest]

Sounds awful Martin.

I've had one now since Xmas, it was self fitted, great for navtex from Scillies to Harwich during the summer holiday and is a superb repeater visible from chart table to cockpit.

As already suggested as the unit works OK as a repeater why not disconnect all the nmea stuff as it works OK and concentrate on the Navtex only facilities. I seem to recall you can check the receiver is working OK even though you might need to wait 4 ish hours for info to be displayed. I've set my red light to show when the unit is receiving, you might try that. It saves the 4 hours until that first message to know something is working. Sorry for the vagueness but do persivere its worth it.


Barry (yacht Mithril)

 

[AlanPound]

Yes - we have the same kind of problem with a Nav 6 - both the display and the antenna have been back to ICS, been replaced to no avail.

Someone suggested we use a small radio to search for interference on the Navtex frequency, and yup - there it is - a constant buzz... Turns out the buzz is there all the time the (Heart) Inverter/charger is turned on...

Now that little puppy is pretty important to me, so the only alternative is trying to alleviate the interference problem - but I'm not certain how. The (active) ICS antenna is on the pushpit, miles from the Inverter. The ICS is powered (at +12V) through a little 24V-12V converter - but that doesn't appear to contribute to the problem, and should actually be doing some line filtering if anything...

We are thinking of adding some separate improved earthing in an attempt to improve signal to noise ratio (the ICS manual suggests that), perhaps connecting the SSB ground plane to the earth connector of the Navtex... although I can foresee that causing as many problems as it is intended to cure (although worth a try - the SSB gets less use than the Navtex)..

Irritating thing is that we have a Furono Weatherfax unit in the setup too, and that has *no* problem in the same somewhat noisy environment...

I guess at the end of the day the ICS unit is just very sensitive to interference... or that is how it currently appears to me....

Alan

 

[kdf]

Sounds like this is a noice problem on the 12v supply. Try getting a Car radio "choke". This is a filter that connects to the 12v supply before it goes into the Nav 6 and takes out any noise that is on the line.

 

[JerryHawkins]

I have a Nav 6 Plus and it was fine until I installed a Simrad IS15 instrument system! The IS15 instrument heads were used for NMEA rx.tx and these caused so much interference that it blocked out most of the Navtex signals. HaraldS helped me out with this problem and I eventually ended up part-exchanging the IS15 expander for an IS15 extender which contains the NMEA rx/tx circuitry so that the instrument heads don't have to do this function. This along with re-routing the data cables as far away from the Nav6 (and antenna cable) as possible has reduced the interference greatly. It now only causes a few "*" to appear in the Navtex data when the instruments are on. I have a Simrad CP32 and this has never caused problems with the Nav6.

As suggested in another post, set the red LED to show "data being received", then go to the "raw data" display and wait for a message to start coming in. 0840 and 2040 for Niton 518KHz (new 'E' station identifier) and 0525 and 1725 for Niton 490KHz. If you see all (or mostly) "*" in the data then you have a severe interference problem and the message will never be displayed.

Hope this helps,

Jerry